Cervical Check Tribunal has received just 20 claims

Vicky Phelan: Low numbers applying to Cervical Check Tribunal 'distressing'. Picture: Paul Sherwood

The Cervical Check Tribunal has only received 20 claims, with just one month to go before it stops taking new claims.

The tribunal was set up as an alternative to the High Court for women affected by the incorrect reporting of smear-test results. However, it has been called a failure by campaigners.

Out of the 20 claims, nine have been resolved, including "almost all" of the claims received last year, a Department of Health spokesman said.

Only 10 claims were received by the start of this year, so Health Minister Stephen Donnelly extended the closing date to July 26.

This cannot be further extended, under the terms of the CervicalCheck Tribunal Act 2019.

"It is clear that the tribunal's rules and procedures are facilitating the early resolution of the claims it has received, particularly given that the tribunal only received its first claims in March 2021," the spokesman said.

Separate figures, however, show the State Claims Agency (SCA) had received 361 claims in total up to Thursday.

"Claims to the State Claims Agency can be resolved without legal proceedings and approximately 20% of these claims are not the subject of proceedings," the department spokesman said.

"Not all of these claims would be eligible for the CervicalCheck Tribunal.”

The SCA includes psychological-injury claims by family members of the women, with 21 new claims received this year, up to June 23.

The tribunal does, however, continue to receive enquiries, and the department spokesman said it is still possible to consider transferring claims from the courts to the tribunal.

This would allow people, he said, to "avail of the specifically designed rules, procedures, and facilities that have been put in place to facilitate the resolution of these claims as quickly and as sensitively as possible". 

A non-adversarial Ex-Gratia Scheme was also set up to deal with non-disclosure of audit results. In some cases women's test results were later re-checked by an audit, but the women were not informed.

"To date, 175 applications have been received for this scheme, and payments have been approved in 174 cases, with one recent application currently under consideration,” the spokesman said.

Payments come to €20,000 each and this panel will continue taking applications until November.

Campaigners walked away from talks on the tribunal in November 2020, saying their concerns were not being heard.

Earlier this year, speaking when she was given the Honorary Freewoman of Limerick award, Vicky Phelan said the low numbers applying to the tribunal were distressing.

"It's been very upsetting and very disappointing to see, particularly with the amount of money spent on (the tribunal), well over €2.5m," she said in February, when just 10 women or families had applied.